Monday, May 30, 2011

Central aid should have come earlier, says Asim Dasgupta

Welcoming Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's announcement of financial help to West Bengal, Asim Dasgupta, the former Finance Minister, said here on Monday that the assistance should have come at least a year back.
“We have repeatedly said that there is a need for debt relief. It is good that the Government of India and the Finance Ministry has already set up a high-power committee to look into this aspect and we have already made our presentation. It would have been proper if the debt relief had started last year,” Dr. Dasgupta told journalists at the State headquarters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) here.

On being asked if he felt that the announcement was politically motivated, he said that in the interest of Centre-State relations, the funds should have been released last year, the year the 13th Finance Commission came into effect.
Dr. Dasgupta also denied Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's statements made on Sunday claiming that the State treasury was closed since November last year and embargoes had been placed on expenditures in the social sector.
“Not for a single day was any treasury closed and planned and development expenditure has been incurred through the treasury. There was no restriction on release of funds for widow pension and old-age pension,” he said.
Dr. Dasgupta said that despite financial difficulties and not getting any Central assistance, the State had met all expenses on salaries of employees, interest on loans and managed to make planned expenditure worth more than Rs. 12,000 crore last year.
He said: “Rs. 4,000 crore of that planned expenditure was made in the last three months and all the funds were released through the treasury”.
Dr. Dasgupta also said that the Centre should also have released West Bengal's share of royalty on coal which has accumulated to a sum of about Rs. 5,000 crore. West Bengal is the only State that has been deprived of its share of royalty on coal, he said.
He also said that the financial condition of the State is not as bad as is being projected.
The total accumulated debt burden of the West Bengal is Rs. 1.86 lakh crore, Dr. Dasgupta said pointing out that it was less than that of Maharashtra (Rs. 2.36 lakh crore) and Uttar Pradesh (Rs. 2.35 lakh crore).
Opposition leader meets Ms. Banerjee
Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Surya Kanta Mishra met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee here on Monday for the first time since the formation of the 15th Assembly and sought time for a Left Front delegation to submit a memorandum to her containing a list of alleged post-poll atrocities its supporters are suffering across the State.
Ms. Banerjee agreed to meet the delegation on June 3 at 5 p.m. at her office at the State Secretariat. 
The Hindu

No comments:

Post a Comment